It’s music, music, music all the time on Aug. 18-19 during Genesee Country Village & Museum’s Fiddlers’ Fair, the largest and oldest showcase of traditional music in Western New York.
Venues throughout the campus will be humming with sounds of stringed instruments, from fiddles and guitars to harps and dulcimers produced by musicians of all ages and expertise.
Five stages, including one of the museum’s historic 19th-century churches with its superb natural acoustics, offer performances from individuals and groups while a jamming tent provides the space for impromptu music-making.
Featured performers include Mitzie Collins and the Striking Strings, Flint Hill Folk, Rochester Strathspey & Reel Society, the Fiddlers of the Genesee, Almost Irish, the Rochester Irish Musicians' Association, as well as NYSCA-sponsored traditional artists that include Phil Banaszak, Jim Kimball, Jackie Hobbs, Ted McGraw and Chad Miller.
Also on the schedule are dance performances by the Jamieson Irish Dancers.
A series of free musicians’ workshops focusing on fiddling skills and introducing the dulcimer, are presented each day of this event, which has been held annually since 1981.
All performers receive free admission—and need to have their instrument in hand in order to receive a pass for the day—along with one guest to the event.
Fiddlers’ Fair is sponsored, in part, by the New York State Council on the Arts.
Museum hours are 10 am-4 pm. (Music continues until 5 pm each day with special workshops on country dancing.)
For more information, visit the museum website www.gcv.org or call 585-294-8218.
